Liverpool passed a major test of their Premier League title credentials to move back to the top of the table by beating Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday.
Mohamed Salah’s penalty and Curtis Jones’ winner made it 10 wins in 11 games for the Reds since Arne Slot took charge.
Nicolas Jackson briefly leveled for Chelsea in the second half, but they slipped to a first league defeat since losing to Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season.
Victory takes Liverpool one point ahead of City and four clear of Arsenal, who they face at the Emirates next weekend.
Chelsea are now seven points off the top down in sixth, but there was plenty cause for optimism for the Blues from a performance that stretched Liverpool to their limits.
Liverpool’s only defeat under Slot came to Nottingham Forest following September’s international break.
The Dutchman responded by this time leaving all of his South American internationals — Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez on the bench after their exertions in recent days across the Atlantic.
The decision to hand Jones just his second league start of the season proved an inspired one as the England international won Liverpool’s penalty and scored the decisive goal.
Chelsea were fortunate still to have 11 men on the field after just six minutes when Tosin Adarabioyo hauled down Diogo Jota.
The Portugal international was still a long way from goal but the incident was almost identical to the one that saw Arsenal defender William Saliba sent-off in a 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday.
However, Liverpool’s pace on the break was a constant threat and Chelsea were caught out when Salah fed Jones, who was chopped down by Levi Colwill.
Salah slammed home his 10th goal against his former club from the resulting penalty.
Moments later, Cody Gakpo slotted in at the end of a lightning Liverpool counter-attack, but Salah had strayed offside before delivering the assist.
At the other end, Jackson smashed off the angle of post and bar in the first sign that Chelsea had some punch to their possession football.
Chelsea, though, had another escape just before half-time when referee John Brooks intially pointed to the spot once more when Jones went down under a challenge from Robert Sanchez.
VAR intervened, however, as the Spanish goalkeeper got a touch on the ball before making contact with Jones.
Within three minutes of the restart for the second half, the Blues were back level as VAR played another helping hand for the visitors.
Jackson latched onto Moises Caicedo’s through ball and coolly slotted past Caoimhin Kelleher for his fifth goal in eight Premier League games.
The Senegalese striker was ruled offside on the field, but was shown to be played on by Ibrahima Konate on replay.
(Vanguard)
